First session of AP assembly begins, members take oath

The first session of the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly began here on Thursday with the elected representatives taking oath.

The Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu took oath after the session began at 11.52 am followed by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy of YSR Congress Party, Cabinet ministers and rest of the members including those from the opposition parties.

Senior leader P Narayanaswany Naidu administered the oath to members. He was earlier sworn in as Pro-tem speaker by the State Governor ESL Narasimhan.

Of the 175 member Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, the house has a strength of 173 members with two vacancies. The election of speaker will take place on Friday and the customary Governor’s address session will be held on Saturday. Kodela Sivaprasad Rao will be elected on Friday as the speaker.

The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly before the division had a total strength of 294 members. With the division of the State into Telangana and AP, the former has 119 members and the latter 175.

Post the division, the new Assembly building has been allocated to Telangana and the old building to AP, where the current session expected to go on for five days till June 24, is now underway.

The State Finance and Legislative Affairs Minister Yanamla Ramakrishnudu stated that the Government plans to come out with a white paper of State finances explaining the precarious situation.

Speaking on the sidelines, he said the State would take Centre’s permission to amend the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. Such a move will enable the state to increase the borrowing limit.